Standish, Bradford streets to get new look, new businesses

Katy Ward

Thursday

Oct 11, 2018 at 7:05 AM

PROVINCETOWN — Two new businesses are moving into town, which will lead to long-awaited improvements to the Standish and Bradford streets intersection.

The chain pharmacy CVS started renovations last week at the former Riley’s T-shirt Outlet building at 132 Bradford St. Its neighbor across the street, previously a Tedeschi Food Shop and a 7-Eleven, will become a Wave gas station. Both properties have been the subject of some controversy.

In addition to the new businesses, the intersection at Bradford and Standish streets will be revamped. According to plans approved by the select board on Sept. 24, there will be two additional crosswalks, and the existing ones will be modified and relocated to make walking safer.

“Three of the four corners will have new sidewalks; the fourth corner will have greatly improved sidewalks and extensions,” said Dept. of Public Works Director Rich Waldo on Tuesday. “It will be an entire improvement to the whole intersection up to High Pole Hill.”

The granite and concrete sidewalks will have “mountable” curbing for emergency vehicles, such as fire trucks, that need to get around traffic.

There will be additional stop and yield signs for safer access for drivers turning right or left from Standish Street onto Bradford Street.

There will also be changes to High Pole Hill Road to improve the merge with Alden Street and onto Bradford Street.

“The construction work associated with improving the intersection will require three different entities to work closely together to minimize conflicts,” Waldo said. “[CVS] will perform improvements to the northeast and southwest corners of the intersection, including improvements to High Pole Hill and the [traffic] island on Standish Street.”

Each business will be responsible for paying its portion of the renovation. Waldo is unsure how much it will cost each business, but he said CVS will be performing the bulk of the work.

“All I know is that we estimated the capital improvements project to cost about $500,000 and the town will now only be responsible for a fraction of that,” said Waldo.

The projected cost to the town is about $30,000.

Last winter many people protested having a CVS in Provincetown, worried that it would take away from the town’s historic character. The formula business bylaw, which was adopted in 2010 to discourage chain restaurants and retail stores from moving into town, failed to stop the CVS. The corporation was able to modify its signs so that it no longer was subject to the bylaw. It is expected to open by late spring or early summer.

The new owner of the Wave station, formerly Tedeschi’s, will make improvements to the southeast corner along the property, as well as upgrades to the building, said Waldo. The owner is P Town Main Realty and Paresh Patel of Bourne.

“We plan on commencing [work] in the next 30 days,” said project manager John Ciluzzi of Premier Commercial real estate on Tuesday.

The former Tedeschi’s property also caused public frustration when the town required the owners to install plastic barriers around the site after the company removed the gas pumps and canopy without proper approvals from the town. Without the canopy and curbing surrounding the parking lot, vehicles could enter and exit the property without restrictions, causing safety hazards. 7-Eleven then bought the property, but sold it a few months later, claiming the cost of the upgrades was too steep.

Since the Wave owners purchased the property in August, the barricades have been removed. A fence has been installed until renovations are completed.

“The town will be responsible for improvements to the northwest corner of the intersection in front of the Gulf gas station and the Alden Street parking lot,” Waldo said. “A portion of the improvements will be funded by the Gulf station as part of their site plan review approval.” The town approved construction of a second story on the Gulf station building in March.

Waldo estimated that work will be done by spring of 2019.

During the Sept. 24 select board meeting on the plan, Mary-Jo Avellar said she objected to the town paying for additional sidewalks.

“No one uses them,” she said. “People are in the street. We spend a lot of money building and repairing sidewalks and no one is using them. The town is basically a mall now. I think sidewalks on Bradford Street are a huge waste of money. Otherwise, I like the configuration about redoing roadways to make traffic flow better and improve pedestrian safety on the street.”

Resident John Tyler, who walks and rides his bicycle in town, said he thinks the improvements will be a big help.

“I think sidewalks are a help in this area,” he said. “It’s a dangerous intersection and I think having sidewalks in front of the Gulf station is important. These improvements will force people to turn right on Standish and left into the Gulf and slow things down. I very much support these plans.”

Select board members agreed the improvements will be a benefit to the town.

“I think a more regulated traffic flow will be much more helpful,” said Selectman Tom Donegan. “I think it’s great.”